Road hazard and tyre warranty - my story

[Magicman]

Gents
DUNLOP AT3GM - 3 PLY TYRES - and my story - Your thoughts?

Firstly a shout out to the local Dunlop franchise who have been absolutely amazing in offering to replace all 4 tyres with another brand.
Their service Renata Dunlop (Yusuf) has been impressive.

12 April 2024 - Purchased Dunlop AT3GM tyres x 4 - 265/65/17 tyres for my Pajero LWB -

22 April 2024 - On return trip from Marloth Park - on an offramp and fortunately having slowed down for a 270 degree turn, the tyre burst.
I had checked pressure of the tyres before I left Marloth Park and the tyres were exact pressure of 2.5 bar, that had initially being added when fitting of the tyres.
See pictures attached. Nor had I noticed any marks on the tyres.

Allow me to re-iterate that at no time, did we hit a pothole, that I am aware of?
Certainly when turning off the highway, did we hit anything, go over anything lying in the road etc, that I or my family are aware of.

My tyre (brand new), was ripped through the 3 ply side wall (which I was led to believe, is perfect for off road etc, I never got the chance except the odd dirt road in Marloth Park)
Let me add the tyre certainly had no scuff marks etc to reflect anything had occurred, nor was my rim marked in anyway.

I took the tyre and rim to the franchise the next day, 23 April, left the tyre and rim for inspection and on enquiring two days later, was informed i must bring the vehicle back in, to refit the tyre with rim as Dunlop wanted a video, this was after photos had being taken the day I had gone in, at the same time to fetch my replacement tyre that had arrived, to pay an additonal R4000 as the claim was not sorted.

My response was I certainly would not be paying R4000 for another Dunlop tyre until I had an answer, not to the claim but an explanation what transpired to cause the tyre to fail.
The franchisee phoned me within 20 minutes and advised he was attending to Dunlop and I have no need to pay.
(Great service as mentioned above)

The franchisee phoned me late last week and offered me 4 tyres of another brand, as obvioulsy with no answer as yet. I am not happy having these tyres,
are they a bad batch etc etc (obviously a little emotional but the incident could have been a great deal worse), and seriously this really should not happen.

Today 15 May - Received report from Dunlop - attached - claim rejected - Due to concussion or impact damage on sidewall.
Gents, this is not about the money but I have these same tyres on my Pajero swb and puchased them as the marketing leads me to believe they good for offroad.
I initially chose them as i dont do much off road but wanted a 3 ply tyre to hopefully limit punctures on the sidewall etc, if i get the opportunity to do Botswana etc

As mentioned above, i certainly do not have any memory of hitting a pothole or an object to rip and damage a 3 ply side wall tyre in 10 days of ownership.
Disappointingly I have only done about 5000km with my swb with the same tyres, so looks like I got to live with those for a while.

As for my lwb Pajero - nope, the franchisee has offered me General Grabber ATX and my confidence in Dunlop is no longer there.

The franchisee - Top marks
The brand - from my side never again.

If you have any thoughts, insight or a similar experience, please comment.

Edit 16 May - Dunlop made contact with me and are going to test the tyre to evaluate and give me an answer, this I appreciate rather than just being ignored.
Will update the forum on the future communication

Edit 21 May - Dunlop have advised the tyre failed through an impact to the side wall, it was a good discussion with the manager Roland Naidoo, who promised to come back to me and did so.
The one year all road hazard was honoured by Dunlopzone Renata, Randburg, who I want to say were excellent through the entire process "Yusuf", definately the gentleman to deal with, who as mentioned above, even offered to swop all 4 tyres for another brand for me!! I believe that service is exceptional.

I still do not recall hitting anything but in this case, the communication, from both the franchise, and eventually Dunlop, has encouraged me to keep these tyres,
My understanding is a 8 year warranty on these tyres from Dunlop for workmanship, manufacturing concerns, A one year all road hazard guarantee, which in this case was honoured by the franchise.

[Flee]

Maybe something hit and damaged the tyre you did not take note of or noticed..

TO ME... the secondary pattern next to the "main fracture" certainly hints that something hit the tyre.

[Sneaky Pete]

I am not sure if this was a front or rear tyre. What was the corresponding front / rear tyre like? Was it inspected as well? If the tyre was damaged in a manner you were not aware of / do not recall, chances are you would have been going straight. If you had had to swerve for an object you would have remembered it.

[rechardt]

I am not sure if this was a front or rear tyre. What was the corresponding front / rear tyre like? Was it inspected as well? If the tyre was damaged in a manner you were not aware of / do not recall, chances are you would have been going straight. If you had had to swerve for an object you would have remembered it.

Yes I agree, he would have felt it or been aware if he had to swerve or felt a bump.

I have seen many a tyre ripped open by a protruding object driving straight line. Or even an object hidden. The tyre damage could have been caused prior to the start of the journey. And with the tyre pressure at 2.5 bar, just caused it to completely fail on the side wall as soon as tar was hit.

[4ePajero]

I still have to see a case where the tyre manufacturer accepts responsibility from the word "Go!".
Their default response is denial, leaving it for the motorist to prove otherwise.

[Rebel 4x4]

I still have to see a case where the tyre manufacturer accepts responsibility from the word "Go!".
Their default response is denial, leaving it for the motorist to prove otherwise.

There was someone on the forum that had a tyre problem with BF’s as well - also no claim.

[Magicman]

I am not sure if this was a front or rear tyre. What was the corresponding front / rear tyre like? Was it inspected as well? If the tyre was damaged in a manner you were not aware of / do not recall, chances are you would have been going straight. If you had had to swerve for an object you would have remembered it.

It was the right rear tyre and all other tyres were perfect. - As mentioned I honestly do not recall hitting anything or even seeing anything on the road.
when leaving Marloth I did check the tyres and all seemed fine. However that is why I am wanting hopefully an explanation, if anything just to restore my confidence !!

[Magicman]

There was someone on the forum that had a tyre problem with BF’s as well - also no claim.

It does seem an issue in the industry, does it not? However Dunlop called me today and they are going to do an analysis on the tyre. Will keep the forum updated.

[Magicman]

Yes I agree, he would have felt it or been aware if he had to swerve or felt a bump.

I have seen many a tyre ripped open by a protruding object driving straight line. Or even an object hidden. The tyre damage could have been caused prior to the start of the journey. And with the tyre pressure at 2.5 bar, just caused it to completely fail on the side wall as soon as tar was hit.

Thanks for your comments, interesting re the 2.5 bar as I generally run 2 bar but maintained 2.5 as that was the bar the franchise applied when adding the tyres?
Perhap 2.5 bar would be less forgiving?? - I still do not recall hitting anything however I would like to keep the pressure at the most optimum for safety on the roads.

[IcePick88]

I would hate to be a tire manufacturer. Especially in SA.

With our roads being so bad, how can they conclusively tell if the damage was caused by a manufacturing defect or from the roads?

Do they go back to the factory, pull some batch number off the tire and compare it to the inspection data for that batch? Or do they just look at it and say, "yeah, tire looks ok in other areas and therefore must be some external factor?"

[Frontiersman]

Thanks for your comments, interesting re the 2.5 bar as I generally run 2 bar but maintained 2.5 as that was the bar the franchise applied when adding the tyres?
Perhap 2.5 bar would be less forgiving?? - I still do not recall hitting anything however I would like to keep the pressure at the most optimum for safety on the roads.

Not aimed at you, but I will never trust the tyre shop to tell me what pressure a tyre should be pumped to. If a certain tyre size fits a wide range of vehicles, the pressure that's good for vehicle X that weighs 1 200 kilograms, for example, will not be same as for vehicle Y that might weigh 1 500 kilograms.

I would rather trust the vehicle manufacturer's recommendation as to what pressures should be used. They would obviously have done extensive testing on various tyre pressures when the vehicle was designed and tested to formulate an optimum tyre pressure for that specific vehicle.

On the Frontier the recommended pressure for the 245/70R16 tyres are 2 bar front and 2.2 bar rear when unladen. So if Jannie from Superpomp Tyres comes and tells me that these tyres should be inflated to 2.8 bar or whatever, I'll politely tell him to go copulate with himself, there's no way Jannie or the franchise he works for can know what pressure is good for which vehicle. I believe the manufacturer knows better.

[TJEC]

It does seem an issue in the industry, does it not? However Dunlop called me today and they are going to do an analysis on the tyre. Will keep the forum updated.

It is good to hear, I asked a friendly ear to re look at this. Only input I can give is that we have no idea the abuse a tyre has to take, often we dont even know we have driven over anything for example a cats eye that rolled over as the front wheel goes over it only to wait like a cobra for the back wheel causing damage, lying dormant till the next heat cycle to show its face. Most times the result is failure of some nature, but can sometimes be as catastrophic as this. From what I can see from your photos there is signs of impact but that is not for me to say. What I can say is that these are good tyres with a 8 year manufacturer warranty but then it must be a manufacturer fault. They also come with a 1 year all road hazard guarantee, that if submitted correctly will be honoured. With our road conditions there are many claims honoured daily and Dunlop as a first do a 100% replacement irrespective of mileage. I sincerely hope you will get a positive result and I think you should, This a good tyre from a good Brand (there are many out there) but I look forward to you getting faith in it again.

Before it is said I DO NOT work for Dunlop, just have trust and faith in the brand. Hopefully one that can be rekindled in you.

Good Luck Boss

[TJEC]

I would hate to be a tire manufacturer. Especially in SA.

With our roads being so bad, how can they conclusively tell if the damage was caused by a manufacturing defect or from the roads?

Do they go back to the factory, pull some batch number off the tire and compare it to the inspection data for that batch? Or do they just look at it and say, "yeah, tire looks ok in other areas and therefore must be some external factor?"

All tyres that get sent as a "claim" to all reputable manufactures get inspected by trained professionals, sometimes the affected area is cut through for inspection or even xrayed. Most often than not though, the affected area tells a story. This is one important thing to remember when getting tempted with imports at a much cheaper price and please dont think I am painting them all with the same brush. There are many fantastic imported tyres but there is junk too. If a manufacture fault is detected the batch number is traced and a full assesment of the manufacture process is done. A munufacture fault is never dealt with lightly.

[Kalahari Safari]

On Dunlop tyres back in 2008 about:

I imported a Nissan Safari from Japan which had OEM Dunlop tyres as standard and all 5 were in good condition.
For packing into a container during shipment, the spare wheel was removed from rear carrier and place into the loading area inside the vehicle.
On collection of the vehicle I noticed some black residue inside the vehicle and some plastic fittings forcefully removed from their original position.

It turned out that during transport and storage in process of clearing the vehicle into Botswana, the spare tyre had exploded inside the car.
Tyre looked pretty similar to yours apart that the tread part was opened to display the construction layers.

Upon contacting Dunlop Botswana, they sent that tyre to SA and consequently replaced all 5 tyres with a different brand (Cooper ST).

So great response and action at that time for a tyre that was originally fitted in Japan.

What panned out was that it was possibly overinflated and the vehicle being stored under the Botswana sun for several days had led to the tyre bursting. Damage to vehicle was of course for me to settle.
So Dunlop accepted the consequences and did their best to resolve the issue.

I am writing this to encourage to go in "all the way", there is hope.

[hatjohan]

Not aimed at you, but I will never trust the tyre shop to tell me what pressure a tyre should be pumped to. If a certain tyre size fits a wide range of vehicles, the pressure that's good for vehicle X that weighs 1 200 kilograms, for example, will not be same as for vehicle Y that might weigh 1 500 kilograms.

I would rather trust the vehicle manufacturer's recommendation as to what pressures should be used. They would obviously have done extensive testing on various tyre pressures when the vehicle was designed and tested to formulate an optimum tyre pressure for that specific vehicle.

On the Frontier the recommended pressure for the 245/70R16 tyres are 2 bar front and 2.2 bar rear when unladen. So if Jannie from Superpomp Tyres comes and tells me that these tyres should be inflated to 2.8 bar or whatever, I'll politely tell him to go copulate with himself, there's no way Jannie or the franchise he works for can know what pressure is good for which vehicle. I believe the manufacturer knows better.

It is not as if that .2 bar will make a difference between the life or death of that tyre. Even traveling a few km, or the ambient temperature, or notoriously inaccurate pumps will have a bigger effect. So given all of these variables, I think you are quite correct in in your view to not add another one in the form of Jannie at Superpomp

[hatjohan]

I had much the some type of "cut" on a KO2, a bit shorter but 2 plies deep. I only discovered this when rotating wheels, so I could have been traveling with this for who knows how many kms. I have never seen this kind of lateral damage on a tyre, due to a manufacturing defect (I don't think the manufacturing process lend itself to this), but I have seen, and not seen, many objects of all shapes and sizes on the road surface that will cause the kind of cut my wheel had. One example - we had a mini circle in our suburb that had a flatbar ring as an edge, the ring came loose and the welding broke, so that the edge of the flatbar was pointing upwards and outwards, ready to cut any tyre. It was like that for months (no manner of reporting had any effect) so I always wondered how many tyres were damaged, without the driver even knowing about it.

[Uys]

as the marketing leads me to believe they good for offroad.

This is a first for me.

Not only did you manage to use "Good" and "Dunlop" together, but you also added "offroad"


You my friend, are a linguistic genius!

[Magicman]

Not aimed at you, but I will never trust the tyre shop to tell me what pressure a tyre should be pumped to. If a certain tyre size fits a wide range of vehicles, the pressure that's good for vehicle X that weighs 1 200 kilograms, for example, will not be same as for vehicle Y that might weigh 1 500 kilograms.

I would rather trust the vehicle manufacturer's recommendation as to what pressures should be used. They would obviously have done extensive testing on various tyre pressures when the vehicle was designed and tested to formulate an optimum tyre pressure for that specific vehicle.

On the Frontier the recommended pressure for the 245/70R16 tyres are 2 bar front and 2.2 bar rear when unladen. So if Jannie from Superpomp Tyres comes and tells me that these tyres should be inflated to 2.8 bar or whatever, I'll politely tell him to go copulate with himself, there's no way Jannie or the franchise he works for can know what pressure is good for which vehicle. I believe the manufacturer knows better.

You correct, I phoned Dunlop and they recommended the pressure should be as recommended by the vehicle!

[Magicman]

It is good to hear, I asked a friendly ear to re look at this. Only input I can give is that we have no idea the abuse a tyre has to take, often we dont even know we have driven over anything for example a cats eye that rolled over as the front wheel goes over it only to wait like a cobra for the back wheel causing damage, lying dormant till the next heat cycle to show its face. Most times the result is failure of some nature, but can sometimes be as catastrophic as this. From what I can see from your photos there is signs of impact but that is not for me to say. What I can say is that these are good tyres with a 8 year manufacturer warranty but then it must be a manufacturer fault. They also come with a 1 year all road hazard guarantee, that if submitted correctly will be honoured. With our road conditions there are many claims honoured daily and Dunlop as a first do a 100% replacement irrespective of mileage. I sincerely hope you will get a positive result and I think you should, This a good tyre from a good Brand (there are many out there) but I look forward to you getting faith in it again.

Before it is said I DO NOT work for Dunlop, just have trust and faith in the brand. Hopefully one that can be rekindled in you.

Good Luck Boss

[Magicman]

It is good to hear, I asked a friendly ear to re look at this. Only input I can give is that we have no idea the abuse a tyre has to take, often we dont even know we have driven over anything for example a cats eye that rolled over as the front wheel goes over it only to wait like a cobra for the back wheel causing damage, lying dormant till the next heat cycle to show its face. Most times the result is failure of some nature, but can sometimes be as catastrophic as this. From what I can see from your photos there is signs of impact but that is not for me to say. What I can say is that these are good tyres with a 8 year manufacturer warranty but then it must be a manufacturer fault. They also come with a 1 year all road hazard guarantee, that if submitted correctly will be honoured. With our road conditions there are many claims honoured daily and Dunlop as a first do a 100% replacement irrespective of mileage. I sincerely hope you will get a positive result and I think you should, This a good tyre from a good Brand (there are many out there) but I look forward to you getting faith in it again.

Before it is said I DO NOT work for Dunlop, just have trust and faith in the brand. Hopefully one that can be rekindled in you.

Good Luck Boss

Thanks, the cats eye comment is interesting as a mate suggested that, his comment was that some of these cats eyes are certainly sharp and would be an object I would not notice running over. The road hazard insurance provided is good, as mentioned this was about knowing what went wrong. I agree that these tyres certainly have a good reputation. In all cases it is about the communication amd being heard. :-)